1.2.5

Virtual Memory

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How Virtual Memory Works

Virtual Memory allows us to access more memory than we have by setting aside some secondary storage space to act as extra memory.

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Paging

  • Memory can be split into sections called 'pages'.
  • Virtual Memory works by moving these pages between the Random Access Memory (RAM) and the secondary storage.
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Move pages to Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

  • If a page is not being used, then we might want to put it into Virtual Memory.
  • When a page is moved to the HDD and not being used, it is put into a special file called the pagefile.
  • Other processes can then use the memory that we just freed in the RAM.
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Move pages to RAM

  • When we want to use a page again, we first need to move it back to the RAM.
  • We do this by swapping the page that we want with one that is already in the RAM.

Jump to other topics

1Computer Systems

1.1Systems Architecture

1.2Memory & Storage

1.3Computer Networks, Connections & Protocols

1.4Network Security

1.5Systems Software

1.6Ethical, Legal, Cultural & Environmental Concern

2Computational Thinking, Algorithms and Programming

2.1Algorithms

2.2Programming Fundamentals

2.3Producing Robust Programs

2.4Boolean Logic

2.5Programming Languages & IDEs

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